The government will notably “maintain all the measures” of spreading of charges implemented during the movement of “yellow vests”.
Load spreading, call for “solidarity” vis-à-vis suppliers: the Ministry of the Economy announced, on Friday, February 21, several measures to assist French companies penalized in their activity by the coronavirus.
The government will “maintain all measures” spreading of charges, partial activity or derogations on overtime which had been put in place during the movement of “yellow vests” and strikes against the pension reform, announced the Minister of Economy, Bruno The mayor.
“This epidemic affects a certain number of industrial value chains, which have difficulty obtaining supplies, affects a certain number of SMEs, in particular in the hotel and catering industry, and also calls into question a number of that are too dependent on their overseas supply “, detailed Bruno Le Maire.
In some cases “very specific”, Bercy is studying “the possibility of considering the coronavirus as a case of force majeure”, which would allow the companies concerned to defer their contractual obligations.
In order to help suppliers find alternatives for obtaining supplies if the epidemic were to continue, the government has also decided to speed up the process of approving supply sources, in particular in construction or chemicals.
Finally, while companies have reported a “lack of information”, according to Jean-Eric Riche, representative of the Confederation of SMEs, the economic service of the French Embassy in Beijing will be mobilized to inform companies of the state of the economic and logistical situation in China.
Bruno Le Maire also confirmed that at this stage the epidemic could cause a 0.1 point drop in French economic growth this year, but he confirmed the government’s growth forecast at 1.3%. It is an evaluation “realistic”, he noted.
For Bruno Le Maire, this epidemic must “ask ourselves about our strategic dependence, in terms of supply on certain sectors”. He cited the automobile or health, in which “80% of the raw materials for the active components of a drug come from China or Asia”.
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